


Grief

by DrunkenOracle



Series: Blackouts [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 16:03:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3535532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrunkenOracle/pseuds/DrunkenOracle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liara Hawke deals with her pain the best way she knows how: by drinking herself into a stupor and getting into a fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grief

A knock sounded at the door of the Hawke residence, interrupting Leandra’s racking sobs. Voices could be heard inside until, finally, Carver grunted in disgust and opened the door to find his older sister hanging unconscious between a pair of Lothering’s gaurds.

"Does this belong to you?" one asked, his voice rough, likely from cigars.

"Never seen that pile of nugshit before in my life," the Hawke boy growled, scowling at the disgrace that was his father’s heir.

"Carver!" Bethany chastised her brother and pulled him out of the doorway. "That’s our sister, you great rear end." She shook her head and turned to the guards. "Bring her in, bring her in. You can set her there on the couch. Thank you so much." Brushing her sister’s red hair out of the way, she inspected a black eye, a bloody lip, and a broken nose.

"Where’d you find her?" Carver grunted out the question, though he knew full well where she had been.

"Outside the Dane’s Refuge. Barkeep was just opening up, said she’d been in that spot since he closed up last night."

"Oh, Liara…" the younger Hawke girl sighed. "At least she’s alive. Mom’s been so worried."

"Right, yeah. Poor Liara, making Mom’s fragile mental state even worse, as if we hadn’t just lost our father!" Carver shook his head and held the door for the guards to leave. "Thanks for returning our pile of nugshit, I guess. We’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again." When he closed the door, he left the room, and after some hushed words Leandra entered from the other room to see her eldest lying on the couch, Bethany trying to clean the bloody lip.

"What was she  _thinking_?” the woman murmured sadly, watching her daughters with concern.

"She  _ **wasn’t**. _ Out of my way, Bethany.” The youngest Hawke had barely moved aside when Carver doused Liara with a bucketful of water. The young woman sputtered and gasped for air as she fell from the couch. “You had Mom so worried, you selfish cur. You’re supposed to be the stable one right now!”

"Well, fucking forgive me if I’m not, alright? I just lost my best friend." She groaned and rubbed her head, propping herself up on one elbow.

"You aren’t the only one who lost Dad!" The boy tossed the bucket down and stormed out of the house, refusing to hear more.

A whining came from another room in the back, and Bethany went to open the door. Liara’s Mabari came tearing out of the room and bowled his mistress over just as she’d managed to sit up, refusing to let her right herself again. This was her punishment for leaving him alone for so long.

"Hello to you, too, Bruiser," Liara groaned.

"Maker’s breath, look at the state of you, dear… Why did you do that?" Fresh tears brimmed in Leandra’s eyes as she inspected her daughter.

The older Hawke girl pushed her mother’s hands away. “I don’t have anyone to talk to. You all have friends here, and all I ever had was all of you… But the only one I never fought with was Dad, and if I’d talked to any of you I would probably have ended up punching someone… Like Carver.”

"So you drank yourself blind?" Bethany shook her head and sighed.

"What else was there for me to do? Blame you? Fight Carver? Yell at mom?" Liara’s voice cracked. "If I’m going to fuck anyone up it should be me." Tears welled up in her eyes and her face was covered in hurt and anger. Trying to wipe the offending liquid away, she winced and drew in a sharp breath when she felt her black eye.

"I was scared I had lost you, too!" Leandra snapped, tears spilling over her cheeks. "And from the looks of things I almost did! I knew you were hurt, but I didn’t think you’d try to get yourself killed!" With a ragged breath, she turned on her heel and returned to her bedroom, the door closing softly behind her.

Bethany sank down beside her sister, slumping over. “This is all my fault… Dad was just trying to protect me…”

"Dad always said magic was finicky, Bethany…" Liara struggled under Bruiser’s weight, but managed to sit up and put an arm around her sister. "It’s not your fault. I don’t blame you."

"But now he’s gone, and for a while we thought we’d lost you, too…" The younger girl sighed and snapped her fingers, magic lighting up under her prints. She ran them over her sister’s black eye, soothing it. "What mess did you get yourself into last night?"

"I got drunk." Liara winced at her sister’s touch. "I got roaring drunk, and I overheard some guy…  _laughing_  about watching a mage get cut down by some Templars… I don’t even know if he was talking about Dad, I just couldn’t stop myself…”

"Did you punch him for me?"

The older girl laughed in spite of herself and licked dried blood off her lip before she spoke again. “Yeah. A few times. It took five guys to pull me off him, and the barkeep didn’t even let them throw me out. He just shook his head and poured me another drink.”

"I’ll have to give him a talking to for you encouraging you." Bethany cracked a smile finally and let the magic in her fingertips fade away.

The sisters sat in silence, then, feeling the wounds in their hearts and slowly beginning to heal.


End file.
